The night is from start to finish a story of dehumanization.
I think Elie portrays the holocaust in this way throughout.
I think the most striking example of dehumanization is his loss in own his humanity.
He loses his faith in God, in His people, and most importantly his father. To the point, that he describes a young boy being hung as the death of God in the noose of that young boy.
There is dehumanization in the overcrowding of people in cattle cars being driven to their death sentence. The beating of a man over bread in those cattle cars of hell. The dehumanization of seeing his sister and mother for the last time after getting out of the cars, and smelling the furnaces of his people being gassed.
But the worst, in my opinion, is the way he loses himself, his morals, and his love. There is a part towards the end where he gets angry at his father for screaming his name in pain and on his death bed because of fear that the SS will hurt him too. Elie says how much this hurt him - as he blames the world for putting him in a situation where he can’t console his dying father. Just breathtaking.
The Nazis dehumanized in so many ways, especially Jews. They were the worst of the worst of mankind and Elie portrays this in a harrowing but informative way.
My favorite book of all time, and I am even lucky enough to own a copy that I bought from Auschwitz itself. I will forever admire Elie’s honesty.